ERIC ED402687: A New Direction for Educational Reforms in the 21st Century: Hong Kong and International Contexts.

45 Pages·0.58 MB·English

by  ERIC

DOCUMENT RESUME
EA 028 155
ED 402 687
Cheng, Yin Cheong
AUTHOR
A New Direction for Educational Reforms in the 21st
TITLE
Century: Hong Kong and International Contexts.
Jan 97
PUB DATE
45p.; Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the
NOTE
International Congress for School Effectiveness and
Improvement (Memphis, TN, January 4-8, 1997).
Viewpoints
Speeches/Conference Papers (150)
PUB TYPE
(Opinion/Position Papers, Essays, etc.)
(120)
MF01/PCO2 Plus Postage.
EDRS PRICE
Elementary Secondary Education; Foreign Countries;
DESCRIPTORS
*Holistic Approach; Institutional Autonomy;
*Organizational Change; Organizational Climate;
*Organizational Development; School Based Management;
*School Effectiveness; *School Restructuring;
Strategic Planning
*Hong Kong
IDENTIFIERS
ABSTRACT
Many educational reforms that have focused on
fragmentary improvement and remedial treatment did not lead to
long-term effectiveness. This paper examines a new direction for
educational reforms in Hong Kong and other international contexts.
The new direction should include the following 10 tendencies:
(1)
(2) toward
toward multiple school functions from simplistic purposes;
school autonomy and self-initiative through school-based management;
(3) toward schools' healthy functioning through a knowledge-based
(4) toward schools' continuous learning and development
profile;
(5) toward human initiative through
through strategic management;
(6) toward schools' multiple
multilevel self-management in school;
(7) toward holistic
effectiveness through a dynamic process;
(8) toward synergy and
education through layer management;
(9) toward total
effectiveness through congruence in school;
home-school collaboration and community support for resources, ideas,
and legitimacy; and (10) toward school momentum through
transformational leadership. Six tables and four figures are
included. (Contains 61 references.) (LMI)
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Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made
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A New Direction for Educational Reforms in the 21st Century:
Hong Kong and International Contexts
CN1
Yin Cheong CHENG
Centre for Research and Development of
Hong Kong Institute of Education
2 Hospital Rd., Mid-level, HONG KONG
Tel: [phone], Fax: [phone]
Email: [email protected]
Paper Presented at the Symposium on
"The Latest Initiatives for School Effectiveness and Educational Quality
in Hong Kong"
The International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement
Memphis, USA
4-8 January, 1997
BEST COPY AVAILABLE
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
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Points of view or opinions stated in this
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official OERI position or policy.
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A New Direction for Educational Reforms in the 21st Century:
Hong Kong and International Contexts*
( Abstract )
Numerous educational changes and school reforms have been conducted to pursue
of the
and educational
parts
different
effectiveness
quality in world.
educational
Unfortunately, most of the past educational reforms with focus on fragmentary improvement
and remedial treatment are not sufficient to bring holistic school development and long term
effectiveness, and inevitably many of them have experienced serious frustration if not failure.
This paper aims to propose a new direction including ten important tendencies for
ongoing and future educational reform and school reengineering in Hong Kong and
international contexts. The tendencies are: (1) Towards multiple school functions from
simplistic purposes; (2) Towards school autonomy and self-initiative through school-based
management; (3) Towards school healthy functioning through a knowledge-based profile; (4)
Towards school continuous learning and development through strategic management; (5)
Towards human initiative through multi-level self management in school; (6) Towards school
multiple effectiveness through a dynamic process; (7) Towards holistic education in school
through layer management; (8) Towards synergy and effectiveness through congruence in
school; (9) Towards total home-school collaboration and community support for resources,
(10) Towards school
ideas, and legitimacy;
force through transformational
driving
leadership.
The educational reforms in this new direction can support schools to facilitate
continuous development of students and staff, increase support of parents and community,
improve technology in education and management, and pursue multiple functions more
effectively at different levels of our society. Hopefully, all those concerned particularly our
students and teachers can benefit from the coming educational reforms.
* note: This is one of the papers from the author's research project entitled " School-based
Management: Research and Development" that was sponsored by an Earmarked Research Grant of
the Research Grant Council of Hong Kong. The author would like to acknowledge the Council's
financial support to his research project. A substantial part of this paper is adapted from the author's
keynote speech "The Pursuit of New School Functions: Re-engineering Schools for the 21st Century"
presented at the Annual Conference of the Hong Kong Educational Research Association in
November, 1996.
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Introduction
Due to the rapid changes and developments in technology, economy, and political
climate in the 1980s and 1990s, education environments in the Asia-Pacific region as well as
in the Western countries have been changed quickly. In the coming new century, education
goals will become more uncertain and complex; education tasks will be more demanding;
education expectations from the public will be more diverse; and school accountability to the
public will be heavier than any time before. In order to cope with the challenges raising in
1990s and the 21st century, numerous educational reforms and school restructuring
movements have been going on to pursue educational effectiveness and school development
not only in the West such as Canada, USA, and UK, but also in the Asia-Pacific regions such
as Australia, New Zealand, Mainland China, Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong. The
the shift to school-based management, the emphasis on
search of effective schools,
development planning in school, the assurance of school education quality, and the
implementation of new curriculum programs are typical examples of efforts on reform
movements ( Caldwell & Spinks, 1992; Murphy & Beck, 1995; Reynolds & Cuttance, 1992;
Scheerens, 1992; Hargreaves & Hopkins, 1991; Cheng, 1996a, b). From these reforms,
several trends can be observed in international contexts (Cheng, 1996a, 1-2):
From improvement to development: There is a shift of emphasis from school
improvement to school development. In the school improvement tradition, it is often
assumed that school goals are clear and static and schools should be improved if they
cannot achieve these goals successfully. But nowadays, educational environments are
changing very quickly and school goals are not so clear and unchanging anymore. In
order to adapt to the changing environments, there is a strong need to continuously
develop nearly every important aspect of the school, including school goals,
school process, and technology
curriculum,
organizational
staff,
structure,
in
management, teaching and learning. Continuous school development is necessary for
long-term school effectiveness. Conceptually, school improvement is a narrow, short-
term and remedial concept. On the contrary, school development is a comprehensive,
long-term, and formative concept.
From quantity to quality: A clear shift can be seen from education quantity to
education quality. People are not satisfied only with the quantity of educational
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service provided in the school. They are more concerned about the quality. Whether
the quality of school education can meet the high and diverse expectations of school
constituencies, and how it can be enhanced and assured become key issues in most of
the current educational reforms;
From maintenance to effectiveness: Traditionally, people are more concerned about
problems happening in schools, and they make great efforts to avoid troubles and
maintain normal school functioning. They often ignore whether schools are effective
or not. But now, there is a shift of emphasis from school maintenance to school
effectiveness. Maintaining daily functioning is not sufficient to satisfy the need for
high quality school education. The present school reforms aim at maximizing school
effectiveness to serve diverse educational needs;
From external control to school-based management: The shift in school management
from the external control mode to the self management mode or school-based
management is evident. The traditional centralized management often ignores school-
based needs and it is found to be ineffective and too rigid to develop school-based
initiative and meet changing school-based needs.
In current school reforms,
decentralization of power from the central authority to the school level, school
autonomy and self management, and participation of school constituencies are
strongly encouraged to facilitate the school-based initiative for school development
and effectiveness; and
From simplistic techniques to sophisticated technology: In present school reforms,
a
clear shift of emphasis from using simplistic techniques to applying sophisticated
technology in school management or planning can be observed. Traditionally, it is
often assumed that school goals are obvious, static, and standard, given by the central
education authority. Schools are all under external control and are dependent
on the
management of the central authority. Therefore, there is no strong need to use any
sophisticated management technology to deal with impacts from the changing
environments. But nowadays, following the above shifts in reforms, the
use of
the technology of strategic
sophisticated
technologies
such
as
management,
development planning, participative management, and quality
assurance, is strongly
emphasized and promoted in schools.
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Obviously, these trends represent some of advances in knowledge, research, practice
and policy particularly in the areas of school effectiveness and school-based management in
these years. But compared with the huge scale of the ongoing education reforms involving
numerous schools, staff, and students, these advances are still too small and not sufficient to
support the formulation and implementation of effective reforms. Particularly, the traditional
ideas and beliefs about school functions and school-based management are still so simplistic
and cannot provide a clear direction for educational reforms in school (Cheng, 1996f; Cheung
& Cheng, 1996). It is not surprising that many reforms with good will have experienced
failure and frustration. There is a strong need for more empirical research and theory building
to support the ongoing educational reforms and school restructuring movements.
This paper aims to elaborate a new direction for educational reforms in Hong Kong
and international contexts in the new century. Hopefully, the coming reform efforts in the
light of this new direction can benefit all those concerned particularly students, teachers, and
schools even in different cultural contexts.
Needs for A New Direction for Educational Reforms
Currently, there are two basic difficulties that hinder schools to become effective:
There are multiple school constituencies and their expectations on school
1.
functions are changing and often very diverse, if not contradictory. The schools
have difficulty in developing school goals that can reflect a wide spectrum of
functions with
short term and long-term considerations.
sufficient
school
Furthermore, many ongoing educational reforms are often conducted with a very
narrow belief about school functions and goals. Ignorance of multiple and
complex school functions in educational reforms cannot bring out effective
strategies to support school development ( Cheng, 1996a);
The schools are often strictly bounded by limited resources input, tight time frame
2.
poor knowledge and
implementation,
for
technology
in
education
and
management, and rigid external and internal structural control.
are not
They
empowered and lack opportunities to learn, develop, and adapt in the changing
and diverse environment. To a great extent, the current school-based management
movements try to facilitate schools overcome these constraints. But, due to the
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simplistic decentralization to the site-level without support of more sophisticated
knowledge and technology of management and education, the effects of these
reforms are often problematic ( Cheng & Cheung, 1997).
Many past and ongoing educational reforms often ignore these basic issues and
use a
piecemeal strategy to change certain aspects of school practice with a hope to enhance
effectiveness. Unfortunately, many of them would result in failure and generate
unnecessary
burden on school practitioners.
It is expected that the educational environment will be more changing and demanding
and our schools have to play multiple roles and functions to meet the challenges in the
new
century (Dalin & Rust, 1996; Beare & Slaughter, 1993; Cheng,
1996f). If we agree that
schools should continuously develop themselves, pursue wide and new school functions, and
enhance effectiveness to serve the needs of development of individuals, local community,
society, and international communities. we should use a new and developmental perspective
to rethink the direction of restructuring of schools in current education reforms. We should
need a new set of principles to reengineer our schools instead of fragmentary remedial
measures.
Integrating my recent research and thinking on school effectiveness and school-based
management ( Cheng, 1996a; 1996b; 1996c; 1996f),
I would like to propose a new direction
for educational reforms, from which schools in Hong Kong and other contexts
can facilitate
continuous learning and development of students, staff and themselves, increase support of
parents and community, improve technology in education and management, and pursue
new
functions and meanings more effectively in the rapidly changing education environment.
This new direction for educational reforms should include the following ten
tendencies:
Towards Multiple School Functions from Simplistic Purposes
1.
2.
Towards School Autonomy and Self-Initiative through School-based Management
Towards School Healthy Functioning through
3.
a Knowledge-based Profile
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Towards School Continuous Learning and Development through Strategic
4.
Management
Towards Human Initiative through Multi-Level Self Management in School
5.
Towards School Multiple Effectiveness through a Dynamic Process
6.
Towards Holistic Education in School through Layer Management
7.
Towards Synergy and Effectiveness through Congruence in School
8.
Towards Total Home-School Collaboration and Community Support for
9.
Resources, Ideas, and Legitimacy
10. Towards School Driving Force through Transformational Leadership
These tendencies for re-engineering schools and educational reforms are explained in
the following parts of the paper.
Towards Multiple School Functions from Simplistic Purposes
According to the educational goals issued by Education & Manpower Branch (1993),
Hong Kong schools and their support services should aim to deliver the following services (
pp.14-22):
To the individual, "every school should help all its students, whatever their ability, and
1.
including those with special educational needs, to develop their potential as fully as
possible in both academic and non-academic directions"(p.14); and
To the community, "school education should aim to meet the community's need for
2.
people who can contribute to Hong Kong's social and economic development" (p.14).
In many countries, there are similar types of national goals of school education. From
disciplines such as psychology, sociology, political science, economics, futurism, and
organizational studies, there are different implicit or explicit functions of schools, in addition
to the above type of educational goals. These potential school functions may be classified into
five types, particularly in the new century: technical/economic functions, human/social
functions, political functions, cultural functions, and educational functions, at the individual,
institutional, community, societal, and international levels, as shown in Table 1
( Cheng,
1996a).
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Cl
Technical/Economic Functions. They refer to the contribution of schools to the
technical or economic developments and needs of different levels. At the individual level,
schools can help students to acquire knowledge and skills necessary to survive and compete
in a modern society or a competitive economy, and provide staff job training and opportunity.
At the institutional level, schools are service organizations providing quality service; also
they serve as a life place or work place for staff and all those concerned. At the community
and society levels, schools serve the economic or instrumental needs of the local community,
supply quality labor forces to the economic system, modify or shape economic behaviors of
students (McMahon, 1987), and contribute to the development and stability of the manpower
structure of the economy (Hinchilffe, 1987). At the international level, school education
the high quality
competitions, economic
forces necessary
in
international
supplies
cooperation, earth protection, and technology and information exchange.
Human/Social Functions. They refer to the contribution of schools to human
developments and social relationships at different levels of the society. At the individual level
schools help students to develop themselves psychologically, socially, and physically, and
help them develop their potential as fully as possible. At the institutional level, a school is a
social entity or social system composed of different human relationships. The quality of
social climate and relationships in it often determines the quality of work life and learning life
for teachers and students. At the community and society levels,
schools serve the social
functions of the local community, support social integration of multiple and diverse
constituencies of society, facilitate social mobility within the existing class structure,
reinforce social equality for all people of different backgrounds, select and allocate competent
people to appropriate roles and positions, and contribute to social change and development in
the long run (Cheng, 1995). From the alternative view of the Conflict Theory, it is possible
that schools reproduce the existing social class structure and perpetuate social inequality
(Blackledge & Hunt, 1985). Due to the growing global consciousness (Beare & Slaughter,
1993), schools are expected to play an important role in preparing students for international
harmony, social cooperation, global human relationship, and elimination of national, regional,
racial, and gender biases at the international level.
-8- 9
Political Functions. They refer to the contribution of schools to the political
developments at different levels of society. At the individual level, schools help students to
develop positive civic attitudes and skills to exercise the rights and responsibilities of
citizenship. At the institutional level, schools act as a place for systematically socializing
students into a set of political norms, values and beliefs, or for critically discussing and
reflecting on the existing political events. Schools often become a political coalition of
teachers, parents, and students that can contribute to the stability of the political power
structure. At the community and society levels, schools play an important role to serve the
political needs of the local community, legitimize the authority of the existing government,
maintain the stability of political structure, promote awareness and movement of democracy,
and facilitate the planned political developments and changes (Thomas, 1983). The growing
awareness of international dependence reinforces the need for the contribution of school
education to international understanding, global common interest, international coalitions,
peace movements against war, and elimination of conflicts between regions and nations.
Cultural Functions. They refer to the contribution of schools to the cultural
transmission and development at different levels of society. At the individual level, schools
help students to develop their creativity and aesthetic awareness and to be socialized with the
successful norms, values, and beliefs of society. At the institutional level, schools act as a
place for systematic cultural transmission to and reproduction of the next generation, cultural
integration among the multiple and diverse constituencies, and cultural re-vitalization from
the outdated poor traditions. At the community and society levels, schools often serve as a
cultural unit carrying the explicit norms and expectations of the local community, transmit all
the important values and artifacts of the society to students, integrate the diverse sub-cultures
from different background, and revitalize the strengths of the existing culture. But the radical
perspectives argue that, schools reproduce and perpetuate cultural inequality within the
society(Apple, 1982; Cheng, 1995; Collins, 1971; Giroux, 1981). At the international level,
schools can encourage appreciation of cultural diversity and acceptance of different norms,
traditions, values, and beliefs in different countries and regions, and finally contribute to the
development of global culture through integration of different cultures.
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